By Israt Kaniz Nipa<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Why courts are better at protecting individuals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think the court system is often better at protecting individual rights than elected branches because judges are not pressured by elections or public opinion in the same way politicians are. Elected officials sometimes make decisions based on what is popular or what will help them win votes, even if it harms certain groups. Courts on the other hand focus more on the Constitution and the law. For example when courts strike down laws that violate free speech or equal protection they are protecting individuals even if the majority supports those laws. This shows how courts can act as a safeguard for minority rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Are federal courts anti democratic? Why are judges appointed?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I understand why some people call the Supreme Court anti democratic since judges are appointed and not elected. However I don\u2019t think this is completely a bad thing. The reason judges are appointed is to keep them independent and protected from political pressure. If judges had to campaign for votes their decisions might be influenced by wealthy donors or public opinion instead of the Constitution. Looking at\u00a0Federalist No. 10<\/em> the framers were worried about factions and instability. Appointing judges was a way to create balance and protect the system from sudden political changes, especially those driven by powerful or wealthy groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Israt Kaniz Nipa 1. Why courts are better at protecting individuals I think the court system is often better at protecting individual rights than elected branches because judges are not pressured by elections or public opinion in the same way politicians are. Elected officials sometimes make decisions based on what is popular or what…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10982,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"portfolio_post_id":0,"portfolio_citation":"","portfolio_annotation":"","openlab_post_visibility":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discussion-board-11-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10982"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12056,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055\/revisions\/12056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openlab.bmcc.cuny.edu\/pol-100-0502-fall-2025-introduction-to-american-government\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}